As a Christian school teacher, you want to nurture your students’ faith. So, you want to help your students:

• Understand a Biblical perspective of what they study.
• Apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

Question: How can you learn to nurture your students’ faith even more?

Answer: By reflecting on questions. By reflecting on questions about targeting Biblical perspective. Here are 65 questions, divided into categories:


Target Biblical perspective:

1. What happens in Christ-centered education?
2. How can you help your students love Jesus and live for Him?
3. What’s your mission?
4. In Christian education, what’s success?
5. What does “application of a Biblical perspective to course content” mean and not mean?
6. What role do connections play in Christian education?
7. What Biblical teaching connects to what students are studying?
8. What 3 Biblical principles will you help your students understand?
9. What Biblical principles do you want your students to understand and apply?
10. What hinders you/your school from helping students increase application of a Biblical perspective?
11. How can you increasingly target Biblical perspective?

Use creation-fall-redemption-restoration to target Biblical perspective:

1. Creation: What’s God’s purpose?
2. Fall: What’s wrong?
3. Redemption: What difference does Jesus make?
4. Restoration: What will you do?

Use questions to target Biblical perspective:

1. Why use questions? (Read, Discuss)
2. Why does God ask questions? (Read, Discuss)
3. How valuable are questions? (Read, Discuss)
4. What does using questions look like? (Read)
5. What questions should your students respond to? (Read, Discuss)
6. What questions should your students ask? (Read, Discuss)
7. What makes a good question good? (Read, Discuss)
8. What question do you want to ask your students? (Read, Discuss)
9. What do you want your students to learn (when you ask a question)? (Read, Discuss)
10. How can you get your students to sincerely respond to questions? (Read, Discuss)
11. How can you use your questions effectively? (Read, Discuss)

Use assessment to target Biblical perspective:

1. How does assessment impact student learning?
2. What type of assessment can you use?
3. What makes a good assessment good?
4. How good is your assessment?
5. How can you make your assessment even better?
6. How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?
7. How much practice do your students need?
8. What makes a good rubric good?
9. How can you use a rubric?
10. How can you use assessment data?
11. What's your vision for using assessment?
12. How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Meet student learning needs to target Biblical perspective:

1. What are sample learning needs? (Read)
2. How can you meet your students’ learning needs? (Watch, Read, Discuss)
3. How can you help your students see the importance of Biblical perspective? (Read)
4. How can you help your students understand that a Biblical perspective can be applied to course content? (Read)
5. How can you show your students what applying a Biblical perspective looks like? (Read)
6. How can you help your students understand how you teach from a Biblical perspective? (Read)
7. What vocabulary words do your students need to learn? (Read, Discuss)
8. What engaging instructional strategies will help your students? (Read, Discuss 1, Discuss 2)
   
9. How can you give your students opportunities to think through answers for themselves? (Read)
10. How can you provide time during class for reflection? (Read, Discuss)
11. How can you design assessments so that your students connect a Biblical perspective with their lives? (Read, Discuss)
12. How can you give your students more practice? (Read)

What 3 things will you do to target Biblical perspective?

1. What 3 behaviors will you model?
2. What 3 questions will you train students to ask?
3. What 3 questions will you ask students?
4. What 3 Bible verses will you help students memorize, understand, and apply?
5. What 3 Biblical principles will you help students understand and apply?
6. What 3 skills will you help students improve?
7. What 3 types of assessment will you use?
8. What 3 engaging instructional strategies will you use?
9. What 3 student learning needs will you meet?
10. What 3 ways will you decorate your room?
11. What 3 things will you put on your course handouts?
12. What 3 classroom guidelines will you use?
13. What 3 ways will you involve parents?
14. What 3 things do you want from your principal or colleagues?
15. What 3 things will you do to stay focused?
    

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn to nurture your students’ faith even more?" The real question is, "What will you do to nurture your students’ faith even more?"


Now it’s time for action. To take action, answer 5 questions:

1. How do you currently nurture your students’ faith?
2. What excites/concerns you about nurturing your student’s faith?
3. How does targeting Biblical perspective help you nurture your students’ faith?
4. To nurture your students’ faith even more, which 3-5 questions do you really want to reflect on?
   5 What will you do?

Take action. Nurture your students’ faith by targeting Biblical perspective. Today.

*Additional resources:

• Videos
• Self-assessments: Target Biblical perspective • Use questions • Use assessment • Meet student learning needs
• Tutorials
• Downloadable resources (articles, tools)

To get an idea of how your teachers can more effectively help students what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following assessment (download). Next, use your assessment data to develop action plans. For each statement below, circle the appropriate rating. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

Worldview: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Articulate Biblical answers to the big questions of life.
___ Explain the creation-fall-redemption-fulfillment/restoration framework.
___ Articulate a Christ-centered philosophy of education.
___ Articulate the implications of a Christ-centered philosophy of education.
___ Articulate that the target is students understanding and then applying a Biblical perspective to the course content and skills, and ultimately to their lives.
___ Articulate what student understanding and application of a Biblical perspective is/is not.
 
Department level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Develop, document, and explain a Biblical perspective of their academic discipline(s).
___ Develop, document, and explain content and skill standards/benchmarks.
___ Articulate a Biblical perspective of the content and skills they teach.
___ Develop, document, and explain enduring Biblical perspective understandings.
 
Unit level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Design and ask effective essential questions.
___ Document and teach students Biblical content.
___ Document and teach students skills.
___ Design and give a variety of quality formative and summative authentic assessments.
___ Use rubrics to clarify expectations, assess student learning, and provide feedback.
___ Give students specific, timely feedback.
___ Use assessment data to modify instruction.
 
Lesson level: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Use effective lesson plan models.
___ Use effective instructional strategies.
___ Identify and meet student learning needs.
 
Collaboration: To help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, my teachers…
___ Participate in professional learning communities that set student learning goals.
___ Participate in professional learning communities that provide support, encouragement, and accountability for achieving student learning goals through mentoring, coaching, and group interaction.
___ Contribute to a bank of quality instructional materials.
___ Lead Biblical perspective workshops for other teachers.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What’s encouraging/discouraging about the data?
3. In terms of helping teachers help students make connections, how would I prioritize the 5 areas?
4. What can I do to address the area I ranked #1?
5. What will I do?

Target Biblical perspective. Help your teachers help your students connect what they study and with the Bible teaches. Today.


* This self-assessment is based on a set of Biblical perspective teacher training standards.

Want to help your students to better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to God’s story of creation-fall-redemption-restoration? Good. Reflecting on a set of DRAW questions can help you determine what action steps to take. What does “DRAW” stand for?

• Define the facts.
• Respond to the facts in terms of feelings/experiences.
• Analyze the facts, feelings, and experiences.
• What’s next?: Consider next steps.

As a result of reflecting on the following set of DRAW questions, you will identify 1 or more SMART action steps you will take to help your students better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to God’s story of creation-fall-redemption-restoration:
 
Define the facts:

1. What class do you want to think about?
2. What do your students study in that class?
3. What connections do your students make between the course content and Biblical principles they study?
4. What’s creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
5. How are you students connecting the course content and Biblical principles they study and creation-fall-redemption-restoration?

Respond to the facts in terms of feelings/experiences:
What excites/concerns you about helping your students better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
 
Analyze the facts, feelings, and experiences:

1. How do you address creation-fall-redemption-restoration in the class you’re thinking about?
2. What units address creation? fall? redemption? restoration?
3. What questions do you ask about creation? fall? redemption? restoration? (What does a set of creation-fall-redemption-restoration questions look like?)
4. What Biblical principles do you teach about creation? fall? redemption? restoration?
5. What assessments do you give about creation? fall? redemption? restoration?
6. What helps your students connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
7. What are your students’ learning needs regarding creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
8. What helps/hinders you in teaching your students about creation-fall-redemption-restoration?

What’s next?: Consider next steps:
To help your students better connect the course content and Biblical principles they study to creation-fall-redemption-restoration:

1. What do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
2. What support, encouragement, and accountability do you need?
3. What 1 or more SMART action steps will you take?

You know that when you meet your students’ learning needs, they do better. Since you want your students to do better on connecting what they study and Biblical principles, you decide to meet specific learning needs.
 
Question: What 3 learning needs will you meet?
 
Here are sample student learning needs:

• Understanding the importance of connecting what they study and Biblical principles.
• Knowing what it looks like to connect what they study and Biblical principles.
• Understanding how you (or their other teachers) teach from a Biblical perspective.
• Understanding the vocabulary.
• Experiencing engaging instructional strategies.
• Time to think through the answers for themselves.
• Time to reflect.
• Connecting their lives, Biblical principles, and what they study.
• More practice in connecting Biblical principles and what they study.

Question: What other student learning needs can you address?
 
Target Biblical perspective. Meet 3 student learning needs. Today.

---

Here's what one high school teacher is doing to meet her students’ learning needs:
I'm passionate about my students loving God with their minds. I really want them to develop a Christ-centered worldview. One way I help them do this is by helping them apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. This year I've been working to meet 3 of my students' learning needs:

(#5) Experiencing engaging instructional strategies: When my students are engaged, they learn better. A key instructional strategy I'm using is asking questions. Just this past week, I asked my students "What's the difference between infatuation and love?" They became quickly engaged, and their discussion resulted in them talking about the biblical concept of love.

(#6) Time to think through the answers for themselves: When kids have time to think, they are more likely to make connections. Since I want my students to connect learning and faith, I've been providing time for my students to think. For example, in my "Who Am I?" unit, I gave my students time to think about who they are spiritually, culturally, and personally.

(#8) Connecting their lives, Biblical principles, and what they study: My students do a better job of understanding and applying a biblical perspective when I incorporate their life experience. For example, my students all know that what the Nazis did to the Jews was horrible and that it violated the biblical teaching of respecting others as God's image bearers. But then they leave class and gossip. 

To help my students really get the implications of respecting others, I asked them to do a 2-part journal entry: (1) to list examples of respect and contempt for human dignity from a holocaust memoir  and (2) to list examples of respect and contempt for human dignity that they see at school. Then I had them discuss their entries in small groups. It worked!

Targeting Biblical perspective is vital. To get an idea of where you are in terms of targeting Biblical perspective, reflect on 9 questions:

1. What kind of people do you want your students to be?
2. What do you want your students to understand about God and His creation? 
3. What’s your vision? 
4. What do you target?
5. Specifically, what do you want your students to connect?
6. What kinds of connections do you want to see your kids making?
7. To help your students make connections, what essential questions do you ask?
8. To help your students make connections, what student learning needs do you meet?
9. To help your students make connections, what unit assessments do you give?

Below, Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on her course by responding to 9 these questions:

(1) What kind of people do you want your students to be? 
Kim: I want them to love Jesus. I want them to be joyful, inquisitive, thoughtful people who always connect what they learn with their lives.

(2) What do you want your students to understand about God and His creation? 
Kim: Through their study of English, I want my students to understand that God created a good world so that we could enjoy it and participate in developing its potential. I want my students to understand that in this fallen world, God calls us to join Him in working to restore peace and justice. Language helps us all understand God’s truth and communicate it to others.

(3) What’s your vision? 
Kim: To see students delighting in the creative beauty of language, checking the things that strike them as true with the Bible, reading fiction to vicariously understand the neighbor they are to love, and using language effectively to understand themselves and serve others.

(4) What do you target?
Kim: I want my students to understand that God created the world good, that sin has affected all of creation, that we as Christians have been redeemed by Christ, and that we should participate in restoring God’s creation. So, I target my students connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches.

(5) Specifically, what do you want your students to connect?
Kim: In English 10, my students hone their thinking, writing, reading, and presentation skills as they grapple with world literature, for example, The Analects by Confucius, Cry, the Beloved Country by Paton, “To My Brother Miguel” by Vallejo, Night by Wiesel, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream by Shakespeare. I want them to connect this content with the 11 Biblical principles they learn, for example:

1. Because people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1.27, 9.6; Jas. 3.9), we are creative (Gen. 2.19, 4.21-22; Exod. 35.30-36.1), communicative (Gen. 2.20-24, Exod. 4.10-12, Jer. 1.4-9) truth-seekers. —introductory unit
2. Because the Bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must seek the good of anyone it is within our power to help (Lev. 19.18, Matt. 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke 10.27, Rom. 13.9, Gal. 5.14, Jas. 2.8). —Night unit
3. Human search for belonging is ultimately fulfilled in God (Psa. 90.1; Phil. 3.20; Heb. 11.8-10, 13-16). —short story unit
4. God calls us to join Him in His work of restoration (Mic. 6.8, Isa. 1.17, Jer. 22.16, Hos. 6.6 and note, Matt. 23.23). —Cry, the Beloved Country unit

(6) What kinds of connections do you want to see your kids making?
Kim: Authentic connections—not object lessons. Real connections—not allegories. Here’s an example of what I mean, taken from an essay on Camus’s “The Guest”:

“In contrast to what Camus and Daru experienced, there is inherent meaning and moral guidelines in life given by God—a conclusion based on a Biblical principle. Truth, which is God’s teaching, is apparent everywhere…(New International Version, Romans 1.20). In fact, the truth of the only God is accessible…(Acts 17.20). We must learn what God’s truth is and apply it to our lives because as Daru understood, human wisdom is faulty…. Humans must establish God’s truth as their anchor and base their decisions on his truth, which may not yield the obviously ‘good’ consequences in this life, but are right because they are part of God’s perfect will.”

(7) To help your students make connections, what essential questions do you ask?
Kim: My students say that thinking about open-ended questions really helps them make connections. So in English 10, I ask my students 4 questions: Who am I? Who is my neighbor? What’s wrong with the world? What is the significance of words?

(8) To help your students make connections, what student learning needs do you meet?
Kim: My 51 students come from 13 different countries, and from a variety of Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. Some have little or no Bible background; some are accustomed to connecting the Bible only with church, youth group, and personal holiness. To help my students make connections with what they’re learning and to prepare them for the assessments, I help them value connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches, see that it’s possible to make connections, and know what quality connections look like.

(9) To help your students make connections, what unit assessments do you give?
Kim: I give assessments to see how well my students are connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches—and I give assessments to give my students practice making connections. I give a total of 9 Biblical perspective assessments. I assess content/Bible connections in 5 of 8 essays, 2 of 4 presentations, and 2 of 9 unit tests with 1 or more Biblical perspective questions. Here’s a sample unit test question (worth 12/100 points):

Describe the existentialism of the author we read who wrote both essays and short stories on the topic. Be sure to include the definition, the juxtaposition that makes humanity’s situation absurd, the 2 things the author says give meaning, and illustrate those 2 things from the story. What of truth (from a Biblical perspective) has the author seen, and what has he missed?

* Want to read additional reflections?

• Unit: Assessment helps students more deeply connect what they study, their lives, and a Biblical perspective
• Subject: Use 8 questions to reflect on a subject area

Tom Postema and Michael Essenburg, missionaries with Christian Reformed World Missions, serve at the Christian Academy in Japan. During their 9:30 meeting today, they talked about helping students understand and apply a Biblical perspective. Then Michael started asking Tom questions. (“As he usually does,” says Tom.)

Michael: God provides for us, so I think you have what you need to help your students understand and apply a Biblical perspective. I’m going to ask you some yes-no questions to verify this, OK?

Tom: OK.

Michael: Does God, your school board, principal, and colleagues support your students understanding and applying a Biblical perspective?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: As a Christian math teacher, can you think one thing that you want your 10th graders to see from a Biblical perspective?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: Can you ask questions?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: Can you identify content?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: Can you identify skills?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: Can you make assessments?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: Can you identify and meet student learning needs?

Tom: Yes.

Michael: You answered “yes” to all the questions. I think there were 7, right? What do you think?

Tom: Those weren’t hard questions. I could easily answer “yes” to all of them. That’s all there’s to it?

Michael: Yes. But let me ask these questions another way, just to double-check that you have all you need.

Tom: Sure.

Michael: How does God, your school board, principal, and colleagues support your students understanding and applying a Biblical perspective?

Tom: God wants people to view the world as God’s world. The school board has policy that supports this. My principal wants students to apply a Biblical perspective. My colleagues and I talk about this.

Michael: As a Christian math teacher, what’s one thing that you want your 10th graders to see from a Biblical perspective?

Tom: The universe. That God made it to work well.

Michael: Can you think of a question about that?

Tom: Yes. How well does the universe work?

Michael: Can you think of course content and Bible content that you can teach your students to help them answer your question?

Tom: Dimensions, vanishing point, perspective in art, and Bible verses about God making the universe and the universe working well.

Michael: Can you think of i or more skills that students need to answer your question and apply a Biblical perspective?

Tom: Drawing, writing, and discussion.

Michael: Can you make an assessment that requires students to respond to your question?

Tom: Yes. I could have kids make a perspective drawing and have them connect the information on perspective in art to what the Bible teaches.

Michael: Can you identify and meet one of your students’ learning needs regarding understanding and applying Biblical perspective?

Tom: My students need practice in intentionally connecting course content and Bible content through writing.

Michael: You responded positively to all 7 questions. What do you think now?

Tom: Well, the questions covered support, unit plans, and lessons plans. That’s what I need. That’s what I already have. I guess helping kids with Biblical perspective is not as hard as I thought it’d be.

You want your students to impact the world for Christ. To carry out this vital task, you know your students will need to apply a Biblical perspective to all of life—including the course content they are studying in your class right now.

How can you help your students increasingly apply a Biblical perspective to course content? Here are 4 things you can do:

1. Target this. You can shift your target from students learning course content to students applying a Biblical perspective to the course content they have learned.
   
2. Ask your students Biblical perspective questions like “What’s wrong with the world?”
   
3. Design assessments that require students to demonstrate their learning regarding the Biblical perspective questions you asked.
   
4. Meet your students’ learning needs regarding applying a Biblical perspective on classroom assessments. For example, your students may not know what applying a Biblical perspective to course content looks like. Meet this learning need by showing them student work samples.

Target Biblical perspective. Today.